Thursday, August 6, 2009

I've just about dragged myself out from under a mountain of resumes that all offer the same thing. Recent culinary school grads with no experience who miraculously know all and have numerous qualities to offer that take most people years of practice to perfect. My job posting on Craig's List has also generated a great deal of interest among people who once cooked, but mainly have experience in some form of construction. Right about now, I'm considering hiring a team of contractors to build me an IHOP, and then staffing it with all the culinary shcool grads who applied. I was under the impression that talented cooks were unemployed in large numbers at the moment, but I must be wrong. Either that, or they have given up hope and stopped applying for jobs.

At first, I thought I could avoid the CL search all together by dipping into the stack of resumes I had saved from past applicants. The first prospect was all set to stage when an unexpected emergency created a need for him to be out of town for the foreseeable future. #Fail. The add went up and the resumes started to pour in. Within fifteen minutes of posting, thirty resumes were sent. The constantly vibrating Blackberry in my pocket made it difficult to concentrate on prep. I sat down in the office after service to wade through the fifty or so that had arrived, saddened by the mainly pathetic lot. With my departing cook's final two weeks ticking away, I was starting to get nervous. I printed the few notables and walked home dejected, my Blackberry's battery nearly dead from all the vibrating.

The next morning I came in early and sat down to go through the resumes that had rolled in overnight. At one point, as I would read a resume another would roll right in behind it. This went on for about ten minutes. Finally a hit! I cook with positive experience at notable restaurants had applied and even better, he currently works with a friend of mine. I called my buddy for the backdoor reference. Is this guy worth talking too? The answer was a resounding yes. I made the call and set up an interview. I then set up a few more interviews to cover my ass. You never know, right? Cut to this morning, two hours before interviews are set to begin. My top prospect e-mail's to say a scheduling snafu at his current job will render him unable to meet with me. He goes on to explain that this sort of shit is why he's out looking, but none the less feels obligated to honor his current employer's wishes. Well...from my perspective that's a great sign. This guy obviously has a positive work ethic and his priorities seem to be straight. Only problem is, he can't meet with me until next week now. #DoubleFail! I've got a need to fill this position immediately, or I'll be cooking alone. At this point, I was feeling pretty low. My top two prospects had both essentially dropped out of the process due to unavoidable circumstances. How is that possible? With only two interviews set up mainly as something to fall back on, I was not looking forward to work today....

So, here I am plunking out this post after having those two safety interviews. They actually weren't as bad as I was expecting. Sometimes it's easy to work yourself into a frenzy, especially with a looming deadline. Both interviewees are coming back to stage, and I imagine one of them will work out. Hopefully...